Everybody Hurts
by aquarius1402
Summary: Peter Parker misses Tony. Steve reminds him of Tony. So Peter shuts Steve out, leading to pain and heartbreak for them both. It takes Natasha, some courage, and a whole lot of music from the 1990s to sort it all out. Rated M for language and sexual scenes (later chapters). Chapter 1/? published now.


**Everybody Hurts**

**_Set after Endgame battle, before all that Steve-goes-back-in-time-again-and-comes-back-old jazz. Kinda inspired by the scene with Steve at the meeting of AA-but-for-snap-survivors and Peter struggling with Tony being gone. Also realised there were hardly any Peter Parker/ Steve Rogers fics and that made me sad :( so I made one haha. Also also Natasha is alive in this cos I refuse to acknowledge her death ever happened. Enjoy! Lemon-y, sweet, and spicy in places (it's a fanfic not a box of noodles I promise)_**

**Everybody Hurts: Chapter One**

There were two things Peter couldn't stand about Steve: that he _always_ listened to '90s music, and that he _always_ reminded him of Tony. Peter could barely talk to the man without tears staining his eyes and feeling that burning in the back of his throat that swallowed his words. He just missed Tony so much that he began to shut Steve out. It was subtle at first, Peter would never be free to chill out with the rest of the team when Steve was. Understandable, really, given that, despite 5 years passing, Peter was still only 18, and had a bunch of schoolwork on his plate. But then it became more obvious: shifting away from him, then ignoring him, then leaving the room when he came in. Peter didn't want to seem rude, he just wanted to be strong for the team's sake. For Tony's sake.

In all truth, Peter knew that Steve would never confront him about it. Peter knew that Steve knew what was going on. What Peter didn't count on was Natasha. As Peter became more and more distant, she became more and more pissed. She saw that the kid was hurting, and she was pissed that he wouldn't reach out. She saw that Steve was upset by Peter's recluse, and she was pissed at Peter for upsetting Steve. Most of all though, she could see that Steve was in love with the kid and was trying to avoid telling anyone, and she was pissed that he wasn't giving himself a chance. She decided to confront Peter, then Steve.

Natasha knew where to find Peter. It's where Peter always was whenever he got sad over Tony: the gym. For some reason, she thought as she walked through the doors, the kid chose to work out to forget his dead father figure. She would have either killed something or eaten enough chocolate to warrant an ER trip. Oddly, however, Natasha couldn't find Peter in the gym, not even on the uneven bars they had put in specially for him. On her way out she thought to check the guys' locker room, just to make sure. She didn't find Peter, but she did find Steve. Sat with his back to the door, the Captain had clearly been working out before Natasha got there, his normally perfect hair a ruffled, displaced mess. His blue exercise shirt was on the bench next to him, his back gleaming with sweat and his shoulders tense and angry following his workout. He was hunched over, head tilted slightly to the right, focused on whatever was in his lap. Natasha could have sneaked up on him. But she didn't. If she was going to crack this it was going to be through talking to Steve. She cleared her throat.

"Ahem. You okay there, Steve?" No response. "Steve... STEVE!"

The Captain snapped out of his stupor and whipped his head around to meet Natasha. He had been crying, she could tell. Red, puffy eyes, remnants of tears trapped in his eyelashes. "Oh, hey Nat."

"Steve, what's wrong? You're not you these days."

"I'm fine Nat, honestly." His voice cracked He's not fine. Not fine at all.

"I need to talk to you."

"About what?" The reply took Natasha by surprise, it wasn't like Steve at all, he never snapped at anyone. Natasha braced herself then:

"We need to talk about Peter."

Steve's face was an odd mix of rage, shock and utter heartbreak. He stood up to face Natasha. His face was unreadable, even for Natasha. She tensed, ready for the fight she could feel coming.

But then Steve cried. He bawled his eyes out, sobbing near uncontrollably. He sank down to his knees, hands over his eyes and cried. Natasha rushed to comfort him, throwing her arms around his neck.

"Why are you crying Steve? What's wrong?" she asked. He took his hands from his eyes and gave Natasha a glowering look.

"Why the fuck do you think I'm crying, 'Tasha? The kid is all I have left of Tony, and he hates me. He pulls away, never looks at me, it's as if he doesn't want me to exist. Not to mention that I lo-"

Steve stopped stone cold. Face frozen, he glanced at Natasha, who had a worryingly knowing look on her face. "You what, Rogers?"

"I love him"

Natasha sighed and looked at Steve. Men are hopeless, she thought. Give them a purple Titan with complete manipulation over all key elements of the universe to defeat and no hit is too hard to take. Yet throw an emotional curve-ball at them and they become weak as anything. She reached out and brushed a tear from Steve's eye, then took his hand. She glanced at his face, before pulling him into a hug. As she did, she looked over to the bench and saw what had made him cry. It was a picture. And it was of Peter.

**_That's it for Chapter One, hope you enjoyed. There is already another 2 chapters planned, so by all means feel free to make suggestions (honestly I'll probably write more than three chapters total). Next chapter should also go up this week. Please comment and share your opinions, I'm a pretty crappy writer, and your comments will help me get better! Thanks for reading, and I hope you keep reading!_**


End file.
